Police Investigate Officer in Critical Mass Video

Police Investigate Officer in Critical Mass Video
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20...al-mass-video/

Don www.donwiss.com/joyrides (e-mail link at page bottom).

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:33:12 -0400, Don Wiss wrote:

Police Investigate Officer in Critical Mass Video
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20...al-mass-video/

A fellow cyclist here forwarded me two more links on this incident. And the
officer is now identified as Patrick McGan. Good!

Channel 4, aka WNBC-TV: http://www.dburstein.com/video/cyclist-ch4.mov

The original video: http://www.dburstein.com/video/bicyclist-down.mov

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

On Mon, 28 Jul 2008 20:33:12 -0400, Don Wiss wrote:

Police Investigate Officer in Critical Mass Video
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20...al-mass-video/

Here's an article with more details:

http://www.nypost.com/seven/07272008...ist_121984.htm

Don www.donwiss.com (e-mail link at home page bottom).

Don Wiss wrote:
Police Investigate Officer in Critical Mass Video
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20...al-mass-video/

Don www.donwiss.com/joyrides (e-mail link at page bottom).

The Smoking Gun has posted the criminal complaint against
the cyclist:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive...9081bike1.html

How many lies can you spot?

This is unacceptable behavior from a NY City cop. Of course, my allegiance
will always be with cyclists.

However, once again, I will open up the can of worms and declare that I have
no idea what these Critical Mass rides are supposed to be accomplishing,
other than to **** people off to the point where a cop loses his patience
and brings a random cyclist down to the pavement.

Is the message that cyclists are entitled to use the streets, or is it that
cyclists have MORE rights to the streets than anyone else?

Papa Tom wrote:
This is unacceptable behavior from a NY City cop. Of course, my allegiance
will always be with cyclists.

However, once again, I will open up the can of worms and declare that I have
no idea what these Critical Mass rides are supposed to be accomplishing,
other than to **** people off to the point where a cop loses his patience
and brings a random cyclist down to the pavement.

It was a _demonstration_. Those of us who are old enough remember when
demonstrations were common, whether against the war, or whatever. Cops
beating up demonstrators is not exactly news. Witness the '68
Democratic convention in Chicago. None of those cops got assigned desk
duty.

Critical Mass, for all its faults, is trying to make a point, one which
we should all understand. That they do it somewhat belligerently is par
for the course. That ****es off the cops, and they do things like this.
The whole world is watching --- well, in this case, probably not the
whole world, but just like then, the cameras make all the difference.

--

David L. Johnson

Anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on
no account be allowed to do the job.
-- Douglas Adams

"Papa Tom" wrote in message
...
This is unacceptable behavior from a NY City cop. Of course, my
allegiance will always be with cyclists.

Myself as well. And in this case, judging by the video regardless of my
allegiance, the cop instigated the confrontation for no apparent reason.

Which makes me wonder: What caused the cop to target this guy? He was
singled out by the cop quite obviously. I was wondering if the guy yelled
out some something the cop took offense at or even had an offensive slogan
on his shirt. Something, anything!

Which is not to suggest that that in any way legitmizes the cop's actions.
Just what caused the cop to focus on this one guy? I suppose the cop might
have figured - like in any mass of people where it's impossible to arrest
everyone - would grab at least one to arrest - like picking out one speeder
to ticket even though every car is wizzing by at 23-kmh over the limit.

And again this is not a defence of the actions, just trying to understand
the thought process.

However, once again, I will open up the can of worms and declare that I
have no idea what these Critical Mass rides are supposed to be
accomplishing, other than to **** people off to the point where a cop
loses his patience and brings a random cyclist down to the pavement.

I'm not a CMer either but to me it seems to be something between a pride
parade and civil disobedience. And therein that ambiguity lies the problem.

People look at a parade and think it's all well and good. Everyone loves a
parade, whether your proud Irish, Gay, Shriner or even Gay Irish Shriners.

People see an act of civil disobedience and figure even if sympathetic that
the protesters should expect a typical detention that such acts entail.

CM seems to fall between the two with different participants treating it as
one or the other.

It was a _demonstration_. Those of us who are old enough remember when
demonstrations were common, whether against the war, or whatever. Cops
beating up demonstrators is not exactly news. Witness the '68 Democratic
convention in Chicago. None of those cops got assigned desk duty.

And that was 40 years ago! Things change. There was a lot of condemnation of
their behavior and they and all cops learned from it. Sheesh. Forty years
ago! That's like saying we should all be afraid of Christians because of
Timothy McVey (which the Islamist apologists claim, anyway).


Critical Mass, for all its faults, is trying to make a point, one which we
should all understand. That they do it somewhat belligerently is par for
the course. That ****es off the cops, and they do things like this. The
whole world is watching --- well, in this case, probably not the whole
world, but just like then, the cameras make all the difference.

--

David L. Johnson

On Jul 29, 1:42*pm, Bill Davidson wrote:
Don Wiss wrote:
Police Investigate Officer in Critical Mass Video
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/20...estigate-offic...

Don www.donwiss.com/joyrides (e-mail link at page bottom).

The Smoking Gun has posted the criminal complaint against
the cyclist:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive...9081bike1.html

How many lies can you spot?

I'd have to take off my shoes

Don't rookie cops get a lecture about attacking people when there is a
high probability of a spectator with a video camera being present?

Sheesh, apparently vicious and stupid!

recycled wrote:

Which makes me wonder: What caused the cop to target this guy? He was
singled out by the cop quite obviously. I was wondering if the guy
yelled out some something the cop took offense at or even had an
offensive slogan on his shirt. Something, anything!

It looked to me that the cop decided to walk across the street and just
shoved the first bike that got in his way.

Cops really hate civil disobedience. Breaking the law (even trivial
laws) seems to be really intolerable to many if done in their presence,
and they take it personally. I don't know if cops get that way after
being on the job or the system selects them for those predilections, I
suspect the latter.